The subject matter disclosed herein relates to phase contrast imaging (PCI), in particular, to PCI imaging techniques to improve soft tissue discrimination using x-rays.
Material differentiation is an important task in the field of diagnostic medical imaging. Discriminating between two or three materials, sometimes more, may be required to reconstruct a 3D material morphology of a scanned object. There are numerous biomedical applications where material differentiation is necessary. For example, material identification may be necessary for: identification of contrast materials in cardiovascular imaging, such as iodine or other contrast agents, e.g., gold nanoparticles; identification of cancerous tumors or assessment of breast density in digital mammography; and identification of kidney stones in renal imaging, among others.
A dual energy x-ray technique is one known method that is used to provide such material differentiation. Such a method requires a plurality of x-ray exposures for the object being imaged. At least one of the exposures is taken at a lower energy of the x-ray beam and another identical exposure is taken at a relatively higher energy setting. In another method, a single x-ray scan uses a photon-counting energy-resolving detector, where the measurement of the emitted x-ray energy spectrum is logically separated by the detector's electronic comparator circuits into energy bins, which is often referred to as spectral measurement. Since it is desirable to minimize the number of x-ray exposures experienced by patients and because photon-counting energy-resolving detectors are not yet readily clinically accessible, there remains a need for the development of a single PCI exposure method, technique and/or apparatus capable of reliably differentiating between two, three, or more, scanned materials using charge integrating flat panel detectors.
The discussion above is merely provided for general background information and is not intended to be used as an aid in determining the scope of the presently claimed subject matter.